The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1887-10-29
A BIRTHPLACE OF GIANTS.
Men and Women Ten Feet High ant
Weighing a Ton--An Artist.

Weighing a Ton-An Artist.
There is a gateway under tenement
house on Forsyth street, near Houston,
that leads into the interior of block
where there used to be graveyard.
Five storied houses have taken the place
of the graves and the grass, and an elec-
trio light company S wires are strung over
one side of the block so thickly that the
clothes lines have to be run in other di-
rections. In the hollow made by the tene-
ments there is series of buildings that
have grown into one by the accretions of
years. These buildings are inhabited by
curious race. There are men of all
lengths and weights, from four or five
feet to ten and fifteen, and as heavy as
ton. There are women, too, some white,
clean and well formed, with shapely
limbs, and cleeiks and tunics like those of
Mrs. Caesar and other ladies who set the
fashions some years ago. In some rooms
of the main building families and their
animals have been living together in har-
mony for months. There are children
with wings like Cupids and dancing girls
whose skirts are always at the same
angle, Dianas with the same number of
arrows in their quivers from one week s
end to another, and Mercurys always
balancing on the same big toe and never
topping over.
One room with an extra high ceitng is
inhabited by giants. Not man in the
room is under ten feet, and some of the
women are as tall. They are muscular
race, and the smaller men who come and
go in the room take great pride in the
swelling muscles, the sturdy bones, the
clenched fists and well poised heads
of the giants. The people who in
habit other rooms in this inner build
ing are not SO big, but they are equally
comely None of these men or women
ever voluntarily stray out of the build
ing and over to the Bowery, that is only
a few steps away. At times the men
and women are changed from one build
ing to another, but they do not go of
their own accord. At long intervals they
go from their huge rooms out under the
tenement houses and into the world,
where they perch on various pede&als,
roofs and arches, and see their old home
no more.
Adjoining the large house where these
men and women live from their infancy
up is smaller building, where they are
made from zinc, copper, bronze and other
materials, and in the lofts over the statue
factory are rooms full of drawings and
models, and further up ordinary live men
at work tacking together the legs, chests,
arms, heads and accouterments of these
bronze giants, that are soon to go out in
the world and be perched on high to be
gazed at of men. Thousands Of pounds
of copper, brass and zinc go in under the
| tenement house every year and come out
fine looking statues and beautiful animals.
The next object that is expected to come
forth is $1,000 bronze buffalo, who will
sit on the banks Of the Missouri at Council
Bluffs and view the river and railroad.
In one of the rooms is the group of
three figures that the Arion society will
put on its new building up town. FL.
Baerer was the sculptor. From his de-
signs the molds were made, and the figures
are now almost finished, and stand twice
as high as tall man. The figures repre-
sent Prince Carnival having a good time
with his family. He has a mustache, a
goatee, cloak and a doublet that does
not hide his shapely legs. No matter how
cold it will be when he is perched near
the roof and the snow freezes on him,
| he will not have any thicker stockings
than when he emerged from the hot sand.
Prince Carnival is made of zinc, and he,
his family and friends are worth about
1900. With him goes zinc valet, a
zinc harp, zinc harpster, and some
pretty zinc girls, all of whom are to sit
on various parts of the new Arion building.
| 1t takes several months to turn out a
zinc or bronze man or woman, and about
the same time for a horse or angel. The
time varies according to the material and
degree of finish required. There must
( be drawings first and then model.
Molds are made from the model and the
various parts are then cast. The casts
Joints are soldered, the tack holes covered
over, and the job is done. Copper costs
least, zinc more and bronze most. A
bronze statue costs more because it is
hardest to make and hardest to put to-
gether. The material also costs more, as
the best grades of copper, tin, zinc and
lead must be used. Zinc statues can be
soldered together, while bronze legs and
arms are tackled on after being fitted into
the body like sections of stovepipe. A
good sized bronze man weighs over a
ton. while copper man would be a light
weight. He is malieable and would give
| indents where a bronze man would stand
it or crack.
The men who make statues are well
paid. The superintendent of castings is
| a well known Frenchman and makes up
ward Of $4,000 year. He does his
work by contract, and the amount he
makes varies according to his success in
making a good casting the first time. He
has long training at the business and is
true artist. The other men are paid
from $25 to $50 week, the burnishers
| and assistants getting less. The men who
put the castings together have to be care
full to make the joints even and not no
| ticeable, but the main success of statue
vests with the superintendent of the cast
ing. Almost all the workmen are foreign.
The proprietor is German, the casters
Frenchmen, the designers Germans and
Frenchmen and the molders and filters
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